KUWAIT CITY, May11: Director General of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) Sheikh Ahmed Al-Mansour Al-Sabah on Sunday evening opened the second Diplomatic Missions Football Championship Tournament at the Bayan Football Park. The opening ceremony of the week-long tournament, the second of its kind to be staged in Kuwait, was also attended by Ahmed Al-Khozal, Deputy Director-General for Sports Affairs along with Dawoud Al-Dawoud, Director of Sports at PAYS. Twenty teams from various diplomatic missions accredited to Kuwait are being hosted.

Sheikh Al-Sabah thanked representatives of diplomatic missions participating in the event, saying that any initiative that brings people together for positive interaction is one that should always be encouraged, especially events of this nature that brings diplomats together for games and interaction for the ultimate purpose of enhancing peace and unity among them. “Sports is an essential aspect of building and growing societies especially if it is done among a diversity of nations and countries like we have here today, in an effort to achieve peace, prosperity and security for our people”, noted Sheikh Al-Sabah.

The Youth and Sports Authority boss toured a number of sheds set up by institutions. In his chat with the Dasman Diabetes Center representative, he urged him to link the center up with the Youth and Sports ministry for so there can be cooperation between the two bodies in the relevant areas.

In a pre-game interaction with members of the Eritrean team, Salah Omar, a member of the team stated that his team was available to participate in the first tournament and was more than happy to be invited for participation in the current one. He added that the tournament helps the diplomatic community to meet and “our goal in participating isn’t necessarily to compete and win or lose but most importantly to participate and promote the spirit of friendship”.